Nelson Mandela’s autobiography is a fascinating read of a great man’s life.  To adapt such a sprawling and heavily detailed document into film is an almost impossible task, yet director Justin Chadwick and screenwriter William Nicholson have done an admirable job.  On reflection, considering the enormity of the source material, the adaptation of Mandela: Long […]

Considering the high caliber of talent behind the making of the film, plus the huge special effects and the fact that the famous title itself has an in-built promise of fun things to come, this new remake of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is a major disappointment. Very loosely based on the 1939 short […]

The title refers to the time and place where the action takes place.  It’s August in Osage County, just outside of Pawhuska, Oklahoma, and the Weston family are gathering. Conflicts erupt when a family meets in order to support the mother (Meryl Streep) whose husband (Sam Shepard) has disappeared.  Within a few days they discover […]

Grudge Match is a high-concept comedy that has everything to do with the casting.  It’s a film that asks What if…?  In this case it’s what if Rocky and Jake La Motta met for one last bout?  Sylvester Stallone and Robert De Niro are aging ex-boxers who need to settle a grudge that has lingered […]

Generally speaking, the average film of late is too long.  Once a movie passes that one twenty mark, audiences fidget.  In some cases, if audience members know in advance how long a film is going to be, they may even bulk at the idea of going in the first place.  American Hustle passes that two […]

The portrayal of the Australian born author of the Mary Poppins novels as being tenacious, stubborn and ultimately somewhat mean, as shown in the new Disney film Saving Mr. Banks is incorrect.  By all accounts, P.L. Travers was much worse. Pamela Lyndon Travers immigrated to England from Australia in 1924 where she began writing her […]